Two handicraft masters share their secrets
By Zhou Binxiang, Liu Bihuaand Zhang Qian |
October 31, 2011, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
HIDDEN behind the ancient wooden doors of Jiading's old streets, there may be an artisan carefully creating unique handicrafts. If you find the right door, it may lead you to a new world of goods crafted by their skillful hands.
Tang Junchang, who lives at 23 Dabei Street in Loutang area of Jiading District, is a well-known craftsman in the town. He has been making galvanized iron products with his magical hands for over 50 years.
Walking into Tang's workshop of no more than 30 square meters, you can't miss his works filling the walls and floors. These include slices and ladles used in the kitchen, and water containers, air pipes and suction tubes used in the factory. He can make anything you can name for daily use out of galvanized iron, according to Tang himself.
"Making everything as well as I can" is the doctrine of Tang.
At the age of 12, Tang started learning how to make galvanized iron products all by himself. Neighbors with broken aluminum pots or iron buckets always turned to him for help at that time, and he never refused them. But his official handicraft career started two years later when he graduated from primary school and entered the local metal commune. There he continued fixing things like aluminum pots and buckets, and gradually became capable of making sewers as well as various tools for agricultural or daily use.
Tang has created countless products over his 50-year career, including the long spout for a special teapot used in making Babao tea (tea made of eight herbs), money boxes for shops, chopstick containers, hotpot bowls, and other galvanized iron tools ordered by factories and enterprises.
He has created a splendid life with his magical hands and earned the moniker of "galvanized iron magician."
The sidewalk opposite Yong'an Temple on Anting Street is always packed with tourists who wait to be sketched by a well-known local craftsman. His name is Li Aijun, a 30-year-old artist who has been sketching people on the street for more than a year.
A tiny wooden cubicle is his workshop filled with vivid portraits of celebrities; it usually takes him less than half an hour to complete a portrait. Tourists to the temple are often thrilled to see his vivid portraits and want Li to work his magic on their images too.
Li started learning sketching in 2000. At the time he went to Beijing alone from his hometown in Henan Province, and studied sketching while working. He fell in love with a girl and tried to make a pencil sketch of her. Through this romance Li practiced how to accurately catch every facial feature and eye expression on paper - and pencil sketching later became his major.
Moving to Shanghai after his studies, Li set up sketching stands at the Oriental Pearl TV Tower and the Bund. He sketched more than 300 portraits every month at the time, and in 2007 he set a goal of sketching the portraits of 10,000 people within five years. Currently he has already passed the halfway mark with 5,290 portraits in his collection.
Every day Li opens his Anting Street booth at 8am, and closes it at 9pm. So far he has collected more than 200 faces of Anting people.
He keeps three rabbits in his workshop to entertain kids while sketching them. Li believes that the facial expressions of children are the most natural when they are relaxed and playing. And raising rabbits is also a way for Li to keep the naughty kids in their seats quietly.
Once, a passerby was so fascinated by Li's portraits that she brought her 104-year-old mother to Li and asked for a portrait of the old woman with all her children around. That is the oldest person that Li has sketched so far.
Tang Junchang, who lives at 23 Dabei Street in Loutang area of Jiading District, is a well-known craftsman in the town. He has been making galvanized iron products with his magical hands for over 50 years.
Walking into Tang's workshop of no more than 30 square meters, you can't miss his works filling the walls and floors. These include slices and ladles used in the kitchen, and water containers, air pipes and suction tubes used in the factory. He can make anything you can name for daily use out of galvanized iron, according to Tang himself.
"Making everything as well as I can" is the doctrine of Tang.
At the age of 12, Tang started learning how to make galvanized iron products all by himself. Neighbors with broken aluminum pots or iron buckets always turned to him for help at that time, and he never refused them. But his official handicraft career started two years later when he graduated from primary school and entered the local metal commune. There he continued fixing things like aluminum pots and buckets, and gradually became capable of making sewers as well as various tools for agricultural or daily use.
Tang has created countless products over his 50-year career, including the long spout for a special teapot used in making Babao tea (tea made of eight herbs), money boxes for shops, chopstick containers, hotpot bowls, and other galvanized iron tools ordered by factories and enterprises.
He has created a splendid life with his magical hands and earned the moniker of "galvanized iron magician."
The sidewalk opposite Yong'an Temple on Anting Street is always packed with tourists who wait to be sketched by a well-known local craftsman. His name is Li Aijun, a 30-year-old artist who has been sketching people on the street for more than a year.
A tiny wooden cubicle is his workshop filled with vivid portraits of celebrities; it usually takes him less than half an hour to complete a portrait. Tourists to the temple are often thrilled to see his vivid portraits and want Li to work his magic on their images too.
Li started learning sketching in 2000. At the time he went to Beijing alone from his hometown in Henan Province, and studied sketching while working. He fell in love with a girl and tried to make a pencil sketch of her. Through this romance Li practiced how to accurately catch every facial feature and eye expression on paper - and pencil sketching later became his major.
Moving to Shanghai after his studies, Li set up sketching stands at the Oriental Pearl TV Tower and the Bund. He sketched more than 300 portraits every month at the time, and in 2007 he set a goal of sketching the portraits of 10,000 people within five years. Currently he has already passed the halfway mark with 5,290 portraits in his collection.
Every day Li opens his Anting Street booth at 8am, and closes it at 9pm. So far he has collected more than 200 faces of Anting people.
He keeps three rabbits in his workshop to entertain kids while sketching them. Li believes that the facial expressions of children are the most natural when they are relaxed and playing. And raising rabbits is also a way for Li to keep the naughty kids in their seats quietly.
Once, a passerby was so fascinated by Li's portraits that she brought her 104-year-old mother to Li and asked for a portrait of the old woman with all her children around. That is the oldest person that Li has sketched so far.
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